Year 6 - History
The calendars of the Maya
The Maya: what made the Maya so distinctive?
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This pupil-friendly study guide includes a unit summary, clear notes, common mistakes, and quick questions with answers.
Unit Summary
If pupils study Benin, they learn about Benin's culture and society and how its looted artworks have caused modern controversy. If they study the Maya, they build knowledge of this civilisation to analyse what made them so distinctive.
Lesson Summary
You will learn to explain why calendars were so important to the Maya.
Key Notes
- The Maya believed the sky was where the gods lived; watching it carefully they tracked the movement of celestial bodies.
- The Maya had lots of different calendars, some were based on these movements, others on the time it took maize to grow.
- The Maya used these calendars to make sure they carried out religious ceremonies at the right times and to measure time.
- The Maya used cycles to measure time, so their calendars were circular and relied on great mathematical understanding.
- Using these calendars, the Maya recorded the dates of when important things happened, using their hieroglyphic writing.
Vocabulary To Learn
- celestial body: a celestial body is an object in space, like a star, planet, moon, or comet
- calendar: a calendar is a chart that's used to keep track of days, weeks, months and years
- cycle: a cycle is a sequence of events that occur repeatedly and follow the same pattern each time
Common Mistakes To Avoid
- The Maya had just one calendar.
3 Quick Questions (With Answers)
1. Summarise this historical learning in two key ideas.
The Maya believed the sky was where the gods lived; watching it carefully they tracked the movement of celestial bodies. The Maya had lots of different calendars, some were based on these movements, others on the time it took maize to grow.
2. Define this history term and explain why it matters in this topic. 'celestial body'
a celestial body is an object in space, like a star, planet, moon, or comet.
3. Correct this common history misconception using evidence language.
Mistake: The Maya had just one calendar. Correction: They actually used several interconnected calendars. The most notable ones are the Tzolk'in (a 260-day ceremonial calendar), the Haab' (a 365-day solar calendar), and the Long Count calendar, which tracked longer periods of time.
More Lessons In This Unit
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